Agent-based models of HIV in Uganda


We’re into the afternoon now. This a very interesting presentation from Krasnow’s Center for Social Complexity. Maction Komwa is a graduate student under Professor Dawn Parker who is working with collaborators in Uganda to model HIV-AIDS transmission using agent-based models.

It’s fascinating to learn about the breadth of scientific activities that go on at the Institute.

Live blogging from the Institute’s annual science retreat

Once again, it’s time for the annual science retreat at the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study. During my introductory remarks, looking out at the assembled group, it’s clear how rapidly we are growing. First lab up is Ted Dumas’ lab. Ted’s group focuses on plasticity and learning in juvenile animals using molecular biology, electrophysiology and very sophisticated behavioral designs.

Jim

Summer at Krasnow

Academic summer is here. I’m off to Providence tomorrow for a quick meeting, then back to focus on the two construction projects that are now getting off the ground here. In the meantime we still are in the middle of three separate faculty recruitment efforts and I hope to have news on that front soon.

Jim

Brooks on Neural Buddhism

David Brooks on the revolution going on within the neuroscience revolution–the notion that something mysterious emerges out of functional brain activity….

Money quote:

Over the past several years, the momentum has shifted away from hard-core materialism. The brain seems less like a cold machine. It does not operate like a computer. Instead, meaning, belief and consciousness seem to emerge mysteriously from idiosyncratic networks of neural firings. Those squishy things called emotions play a gigantic role in all forms of thinking. Love is vital to brain development.

Researchers now spend a lot of time trying to understand universal moral intuitions. Genes are not merely selfish, it appears. Instead, people seem to have deep instincts for fairness, empathy and attachment.

I have a collaborator in India (we share a graduate student) who thinks along these lines. It’s quite exciting.

Jim

Final thoughts on Decade of the Mind 3

I left the conference with a tremendous appreciation for ape
research–particularly the complexities of their cognitive capabilities.
Having sponsored ape research in collaboration with the National Zoo, I
had thought I was fairly sophisticated in terms of understanding what is
going on in the field–I now know I'm not.

I think it is fair to say that ape research, both in the field and with
animals in captivity, is undergoing a similar revolution to what
happened in neuroscience over the past decade–the methodologies are
becoming ever more sophisticated which allow for asking more interesting
questions.

Our next Decade of the Mind symposium will be in January out at Sandia
National Laboratory. The focus will be robotics. Stay tuned.

Jim

Blogging from Decade of the Mind III

Things are about to get underway here in Des Moines. I’ll be blogging my way through it. This evening, Decade of the Mind steering committee member Giulio Tononi will be giving the keynote lecture, “Consciousness and the Brain”. For those of you who missed him last May at the first Decade symposium, this is a great opportunity. He is one of the very best scientist speakers in the world.

Jim